


Sinful Nature

by icyvanity



Series: Andreil Week 2018 [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Awkward Conversations, Awkwardness, Clubbing, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Getting Together, M/M, Oblivious, Secret Crush, Threats, fake exes, lying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-21 04:44:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14908574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icyvanity/pseuds/icyvanity
Summary: Neil slips up in a conversation with Allison, who won't rest until he tells her who he went on a date with; the problem is, he hasn't gone out with anyone. He picks a name, hoping Allison won't know the guy, but Neil's life has never been that easy on him.





	Sinful Nature

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 1 of [andreilweek](http://andreilweek.tumblr.com) for the prompt "fake exes".
> 
> Also, I referenced some of the au prompts from [this post.](http://lady-gryffindor.tumblr.com/post/151523009318/mraculous-weve-all-heard-of-the-fake-dating)
> 
> Title is from the song _Sinful Nature_ by Bear in Heaven.

“ _Neil Josten_ , you would not believe what Seth did!”

Neil actually thought he might be able to guess what Seth had done—since he was always doing _something_ wrong—but that was beside the point. Allison would rant about Seth to anyone who breathed. She threw herself down on the stool next to him and started talking right into his ear. It was almost impossible to hear anyone in Eden’s on a crowded Saturday night, but somehow Allison always managed to be heard whether it was over the crowd of a championship exy game or the bass thrumming through the club.

“Isn’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?” she asked, and Neil was conscious enough of the conversation to hear the uptick at the end of the sentence denoting her question to offer a hum of affirmation. This was good enough for Allison, who continued on her rant.

About ten minutes later, Allison was just about done talking about whatever Seth had done this time that had her walking out on him again, and Neil was glad he paid enough attention to know that they were in the off part of their relationship. They broke up and got back together so often that Neil was never quite sure where their relationship stood, even if they were getting it on right in front of him (which, thankfully, had not never happened).

“But, anyway, men are trash,” she concluded, knocking back a shot that had somehow appeared during the duration of the conversation; Roland offered Neil a conspiratory wink across the counter.

“What else is new,” Neil said sullenly, automatically, _accidentally_. That was how Allison always followed up that statement, and it had sounded wrong without the addition. But now Allison was looking at him, eyes widening, mouth falling open with glee, and Neil tried to backtrack to figure out how what he said was bad enough to inspire that expression.

“Are you saying this from _experience_?”

Allison never seemed to get that he wasn’t particularly interested in dating anyone. He hadn’t really had any chances to when he was younger, and he’d never even been on a date. Allison couldn’t accept this fact, and Neil knew it was futile to argue but he tried his hardest anyways.

“With all you tell me of men, why would I want to date any of them?”

“That is _not_ an answer, Neil!” she said, a vicious grin twisting her lips. “Did you go on a date?”

“Allison—”

“Who was she?”

“You know—"

Allison gasped, “Who was _he_?”

Neil sighed, pressing his hand into his eyes. He knew Allison would interrogate him until he let something slip, so he might as well just pick someone and be done with it. Who was the easiest option? Matt was safely off limits, head over heels in love with Dan—something which Allison was well aware of, as their maid of honor and the godmother to their children. Anyone from the office was impossible too, since Allison knew everyone’s secrets there (besides Neil’s, but they’d known each other from college and she claimed he didn’t count). He was wracking his brains, trying to ignore Allison’s grin growing wider and wider until—

“Andrew Minyard.”

It wasn’t the first name to pop into his head, but he was almost positive Allison and Andrew would have had no reason to interact back in college. Allison was queen of the world, and Andrew regarded everything with apathy or outright hatred. Neil and Andrew’s coursework had overlapped at some point—since Neil’s linguistic background had him taking classical languages, and Andrew claimed he was forced into it by the pre-law track. He hadn’t seen Andrew in years, so this had to be his safest option. How his thoughts drifted to Andrew, he didn’t know. Maybe it was the flash of neon against the blonde of Allison’s hair that reminded him.

“Andrew Minyard,” Allison repeated flatly, her expression remarkably dull in comparison to the garish smile that had adorned her face only moments before.

Neil smiled sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders, trying to ignore the frantic beating of his heart at the realization that Allison did in fact know Andrew. “Uh, _yes_?”

“You went on a date with Andrew _fucking_ Minyard?”

Oh shit. “Why do you say it like that?”

“He’s a possessive and violent scumbag! He almost killed four guys right outside of this bar, Neil. How the fuck did you get roped into going on a date with that monster?” she asked scathingly, and Neil almost felt a bit of sympathy for Andrew.

“I mean it’s not like it’ll ever happen again—”

Allison’s eyes narrowed, and it wasn’t just in the flash of a passing spotlight. “I swear to god if he did something to you, I’ll—”

She broke off suddenly. Allison wasn’t one to stop speaking unless forced to, but she was looking over Neil’s shoulder instead of at him, as if something had caught her eye.

“Speak of the _fucking_ devil,” she hissed, sliding off her chair with a hand thrown in his direction to keep him there before she disappeared into the crowd. Neil spun around on his stool and almost fell off it when his scanning of the crowd revealed none other than Andrew Minyard sitting close to the back wall of the club, unknowingly about to experience Allison ripping him a new asshole. Neil caught a glimpse of Allison in the crowd and he was off the bar stool, careening around the writhing bodies as he tried to get there first, but for once he wasn’t fast enough.

Neil tried to shoot Andrew an apologetic and embarrassed look over Allison’s shoulder, but he was solely focused on Allison threatening him within an inch of his life. When he didn’t respond to any of her accusations—choosing to sip from his whiskey with the barest hint of amusement in his expression instead—she dragged Neil into the fray.

“I get it, Neil’s irresistible. But that doesn’t mean you should take advantage—”

“Allison.”

“—of his well-meaning sensibilities. I know that you have less feelings than the gum on the bottom of this table—”

“ _Allison_.”

She shot him a glare and took a deep breath before she looked Andrew in the eye once more. “Where did you even take him? Neil’s worth more than a fuck.”

“Allison, for the love of _fuck_.”

Andrew set his glass down and finally looked at Neil. Neil knew he was gaping, glancing between the two of them in horror at the shitstorm his lack of forethought had caused. Andrew stood up—which Neil didn’t notice until he closed the distance between them, since he wasn’t any taller on his feet than he was sitting.

“I didn’t realize you had such an awful time,” he said quietly, yet Neil could still hear him over the noise of the crowd. It seemed ridiculous that after all these years, Neil could still focus completely on Andrew and let the rest of the world fade away. They were never friends, but Neil liked the solidarity he felt sharing cigarettes on the curb behind the foreign languages building with Andrew.

He realized it was his turn to talk, and he stuttered out an attempt at an explanation. “I didn’t—I mean—”

“If you must know,” Andrew said, addressing Allison though his eyes never left Neil’s, “we went to a gallery show. You know how Neil loves his photography.”

Neil was gaping again but at least he wasn’t alone; Allison was struck dumb for quite possibly the first time in her life. Andrew’s lips quirked at the response, and Neil felt his cheeks heating. He had no idea how Andrew knew about his hobby, as he’d never shown his photos to anyone other than his cat—who didn’t seem to think they were all that great. He returned Andrew’s gaze, as if he could find the answers there.

“Neil,” Allison said loudly, and Neil’s eyes snapped to her. Her lips were pursed, and Neil imagined she might have been saying his name for a while. “Let’s go back to the bar and forget this asshole.”

“I was actually hoping I could buy you a drink,” Andrew said, practically ignoring Allison, his eyes still fixed on Neil, “to make up for the other night.”

Neil glanced between the two of them, until Allison finally huffed out a vague threat of, “If you fucking hurt him again.”

Andrew finished it with, “My funeral?”

Allison’s lips pulled back in a silent snarl, but she didn’t say anything else. She pushed her way back into the crowd, presumably to find Renee so she could complain about Seth and Andrew, and Neil looked down at his feet.

“I’m sorry about all of this,” he forced out, “She’s just hard to evade sometimes.”

Andrew huffed out a laugh. “Why’d you pick me? You must have had some better options.”

“I don’t really,” _feel attraction to anyone, have any exes, want to find ‘the one’_ , “date.”

Andrew raised his brows. “That’s a real shame, Josten. You’re more attractive than anyone else in this damn club.”

Attractive wasn’t usually a word people used to describe Neil. Unusual, yes. Unique, sure. The mess of scaring and old burns marring his face and the rest of his body usually turned people far away from “attractive”. Andrew’s quiet disappointment looked genuine, though, and Neil wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

“Yeah, right,” he managed.

Andrew frowned. It took a moment, but he said, “Surely you knew, back in college.”

Neil was lost. “Knew?” he asked.

“That I—” Andrew began, but he cut himself off, his own cheeks tinged with pink that Neil could barely see despite the strobe lights dancing across the walls. “Never mind,” he finished lamely.

“What?”

Andrew stared at him for an indiscernible amount of time. Eden’s was sweaty as always—Allison had once compared the humidity to how it must feel to stand inside someone’s mouth, a visual Neil had tried and failed to get out of his mind for years—and a cacophony of light and sound and bodies, but Neil found himself slipping out of the moment once again with Andrew’s eyes on his. Andrew opened his mouth, but no words came out. Suddenly, he grabbed Neil’s arm and turned on his heel, dragging him deeper into the club. He weaved around the dancers and the drunks and didn’t stop until he was at a door, which he shoved open, letting the lights and screams disappear into the night. The door slammed shut behind them. Neil could see their breath before them, warm against the cool autumn breeze.

“Andrew, what—”

“Are you really that dumb or are you just playing with me?” Andrew asked, still facing away from him, hand still wrapped around Neil’s wrist; his hold tightened convulsively.

“Playing with you?” Neil repeated. “You’re the one who hates me, not the other way around.”

“I do hate you, Neil. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to kiss you since the day you tripped down the stairs in Latin.”

“ _Hey_! It’s not my fault someone left their bag in the middle of the stairs,” Neil retorted, before his brain could catch up with Andrew’s words. “Wait—”

“Forget it. I just thought that maybe when you told Allison it was me—” Andrew sighed. “Just forget it.”

Andrew released him, but Neil could still feel phantom fingers against his racing pulse. It was a lot to process all at once, a lot to put into perspective—how Andrew always waited for him after class and listened to him rant about his roommate, how Andrew let him steal his cigarettes only to let them burn down to the filter, how he felt so calm and safe around Andrew despite his war-torn past. Neil tried to figure it out faster though, because Andrew was sighing and walking away, about to disappear into the night like the music and the light.

“Wait!” Neil called out; Andrew stopped but didn’t turn. “What about that drink?”

“What about it?”

“You said you’d buy me a drink,” Neil said quickly, taking a step closer to Andrew. “Or—or maybe we could actually go to that photo exhibition in town. They’ll have wine and Cindy Sherman is actually one of my favorite photographers. It could be fun.” When Andrew didn’t respond, Neil rushed to continue. “I mean—that is—of course—if you don’t want—”

“That’d be nice.” Andrew said it quietly, still turned away.

Neil grinned, feeling light. “Yeah?”

Andrew sighed. “Yeah, idiot. I’ll go on a real date with you. But you’re paying for your own damn wine. It’s the least you can do, really, since you got us into this mess.”

Neil threw his head back and laughed. Andrew slowly turned to face him, and there was a hint of something in his eyes—a calm that no one else seemed to see, a glimpse of potential happiness. Neil held his hand out, and laughter bubbled out of him again as Andrew rolled his eyes and took his hand. He wasn’t sure who was dragging who toward the street, down the street, into the gallery that was a lot closer than he’d thought, but he didn’t think it really mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> [read on tumblr](http://lady-gryffindor.tumblr.com/post/175564389048/lady-gryffindor-sinful-nature-rated-t-2210)


End file.
